A recent study published by PLOS One, a scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science, has made a case supporting the increased risk of heart attack to individuals taking proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for their acid reflux disease. PPIs have previously been associated with adverse clinical outcomes in users of clopidogrel, a drug regularly prescribed after a heart attack.
The study sought to explore the potential heart attack risk for PPI users who are normally healthy, do not suggest any prior history of heart disease, and do not take clopidogrel. Using data mining, a form of analysis that searches through large amounts of data to find trends over time, researchers examined some three million individuals to conclude acid reflux disease patients exposed to PPIs have a higher association with heart attacks, despite never taking clopidogrel (PPIs examined in the study include omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole, esomeprazole, rabeprazole, and dexlansoprazole). Further, H2 Blockers, an alternative treatment for acid reflux disease, were found to have no association with increased heart attack risk.
Because they may interfere with protective enzymes in the body, PPIs may heighten an individual’s vulnerability to inflammation, clots, and general heart problems. The observation that other medications like H2 blockers were not associated with increased risk supports the claim that PPIs specifically boost heart risk. It should be considered, however, that PPI usage in general may suggest the population studied were sicker than the average individual and more subject to heart disease.
Often patients go to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain which is really pain from an impending heart attack. Doctors misdiagnose an impending heat attack and treat the patient as if they have stomach flu, a stomach ache, or a related problem. If you believe that you or a loved one may have been a victim of a doctor’s negligence, whether it was misdiagnosis or wrongful death, please call Gerald Thurswell of Thurswell Law at (866) 354-5544. We will get your medical records and investigate this case at no charge to you. If and only if we believe malpractice is committed and we are successful, you pay a fee only if we collect money for you.
Courtesy of:
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0124653&representation=PDF
